Loco for Coco

Coconuts falling, children calling, the sights and sounds are quite appalling.

It’s coconut season. Children migrate to the coconut palm-lined driveway with machetes and kitchen knives. Coconut husks fly as skilled hands hack away the useless skin. The afternoon sun’s lazy rays filter through the trees, cloning shadows of the lofty palms on the stark gray of the driveway. Heads tip back, allowing sweet juice to quench parched throats. Eager hands pry apart tough skin, revealing tasty meat that satisfies hunger.

The kids here are like coconuts. Many of them have a tough outer skin and sometimes getting them to open up takes a lot of work. I like to think that my time and patience act as a knife. I hack away at their tough exterior for awhile until they let me see who they really are. Life's rains and storms have hardened their skin and soured their flavor, but inside there is a heart waiting to be reached, waiting to be told it has value.

I've become close friends with one of the older girls. She's 15 years old and has lived at the Hogar for almost a year. Sometimes we joke around. Sometimes we sit and look at the stars. Sometimes we talk about boys. Sometimes she tells me what's on her heart. Today she came to my room to talk. She told me she wanted to leave the Hogar, that she wasn't happy here. I told her how special she is and that she can't let her painful past stop her from fighting for a bright future. I told her over and over that God has amazing plans for her and reminded her how special and unique she is. By the time I was done talking to her, she'd begun to cry.I asked her if she wanted to pray with me and she didn't answer. I sent up a silent plea that God would help me say something right. When I opened my eyes, tears were sliding down her cheeks and pooling in her lap. I felt my own eyes beginning to water as I put my arms around her. My knife had done it's work well. She had shed her tough outer skin and let me see her heart. I realized something though. God can use us to reach others, but sometimes we have to let him do the rest. My knife can peel away the exterior, but it takes the Master Carver to carefully extract the meat that's inside and make it edible again.